


Feather Fall

by MistBorn_SprenDeath



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parent Sam | Awesamdude, Phoenix TommyInnit, Runs to Awesamdude actually, SBI technically is a thing, awesamdad, but Tommy runs from it, phoenix!tommyinnit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29082498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistBorn_SprenDeath/pseuds/MistBorn_SprenDeath
Summary: Wings should have been harder to hide.-Dream didn’t take kindly to flaming wings.Originally it had just been his armor and tools, things that could actually make him a threat; those were the things Dream destroyed.But wings?Those are part of his biology.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 379





	Feather Fall

Tommy had a love hate relationship with fire. If he ever spoke about it, he’d probably say that it’s because it’s too hot or it smells awful. But there’s always something deeper to be seen in Tommy’s words.

The thing was, Tommy _liked_ fire. In all of it’s forms fire is a source of warmth and light. Torches placed to illuminate the ground and ward off mobs. Campfires or burning coal for cooking food.

But….

TNT.

Lava.

Fire can also burn and destroy. Tommy was taught the dangers. The burning of the forests around L’Manberg, when it was still an infant. Lacing TNT under L’Manberg which would lead to the events that took place in the control room.

Wilbur Soot planting TNT underneath Manberg after he and Tommy were exiled.

The burning of Georgenotfound’s roof. Repeated exploding of all his supplies via TNT while he was in exile. Ruining of the Community House, which Tommy was blamed for. The absolute demolition of L’Manberg to TNT machines, leaving nothing behind but bedrock.

Fire has an innate correlation to destruction and pain. And the smell of fire is correlated to the fuel for the fire. Gunpowder is the most common fuel source in Tommy’s experience of fire on the Dream SMP. 

If he tamed a cat to scare away creepers, that was no one else’s business. If he stopped traveling in the nether in spite of its convenience, who was anyone else to judge? If he never made a fire aspect sword, no one had any business asking about it.

But the problem was further reaching.

Fire might be someone’s interest or hobby, but for Tommy, it was in his _blood_.

Okay, so technically it was in his wings but Tommy still counted it. ~~_Sounds way cooler to say in his blood._ ~~

Maybe someone could have understood if they had the wings of a phoenix, but no one else that Tommy knew had wings.

Sure Philza and Quackity had wings but....did he actually know them?

~~_He wished he could say yes_ ~~

Wings should have been harder to hide.

In spite of being his father, Philza didn’t _know_.

Quackity would have _noticed_ his nesting habits.

But they didn’t.

~~_Why would they bother themselves with his problems?_ ~~

They didn’t see. Even with all his fire, no one ever saw. Well...no one _had_ seen.

It had been an accident ~~_or maybe it was because of his weak mind_ ~~ when Dream found out.

Tnret had been knocked over, and in Tommy’s panic he had set the white tent on fire.

Dream didn’t take kindly to flaming wings.

Originally it had just been his armor and tools, things that could actually make him a _threat_ ; those were the things Dream destroyed. 

But wings? 

Those are part of his _biology_.

Besides, a phoenix feather is a life. In all technicalities, Tommy hadn’t lost _any_ of his canon lives. Dream was sure to rectify that. And to blow everything else to pieces.

The smell of fire is correlated to the fuel for the fire.

Tommy had never wished more that he could die...and trembling there at the top of his tower he nearly did. He didn’t have wings to catch him anymore.

But then he had a horrifying realization.

Dream now had Phoenix feathers... _his_ feathers.

Tommy had to get them back.

Not for the sake of every other person who _pushed_ him away and _forgot_ him, but because Dream was going to use _Tommy’s feathers_ to make himself a god.

He wouldn’t stand for it.

Rather, he couldn’t stand much at all.

Having the weight of two large, feathery wings alters your balance. Being without them meant he needed to relearn how to walk. He couldn’t even _run_ from the mobs. ~~_He couldn’t run from his nightmares_ ~~

But TommyInnit has always been known for being stubborn.

His free fall into the water felt much more dangerous without his wings. A sort of adrenaline rush that made him feel sick and woozy, head spinning.

Walking out in the open, where Dream could find him again, wasn’t an option. So he gathered enough wood to fill over half of his inventory and dug down into the caves. Digging a two by one hole was slow enough that Tommy could actually do it with the additional support of the walls on either side. 

It was slow going. In part because of the massive amounts of pain he was in, and in two more parts: because he could barely even walk straight and he had to smelt all the cobblestone into stone so he could block the path behind him.

It was monotonous and made his arms ache, but it was a good distraction from the unbelievable pain against his back. Every movement of his arm scent shockwaves of pain into his shoulder blades, but it only made him push harder. 

Each spark of pain reminding him just _who_ he was fighting against.

In all honesty, Tommy had forgotten all about the need for food until the hunger pains hit him 50 blocks out. He couldn’t just... _tunnel_ up. It was far too open out there, Dream could find him. Besides, the pain was nothing compared to losing his wings.

So he pushed past the hunger and the pain as his body tried to finally collapse. With the warmth and fire glowing brightly from the furnace as his focus, Tommy was able to push forward. It hurt. But it was nothing like the pain of dying. 

Tommy had read books that he had managed to buy in a village several years ago, back when he was still frantically searching for a _cure_ for having wings made of charcoal. A book about Phoenixes. It had been sort of a last resort.

That’s when he discovered the most about himself. All the unexplainable things about himself that he had never even thought of associating with having wings.

Phoenix powers were held in a phoenix’s wings.

> _And hybrids of the phoenix bird tended to inherit strong qualities and characteristics of the mob. The more obvious pull toward fire and warmth, but also the desire to protect what has been claimed as theirs. Which could be anything from an item of sentiment to a person of close relation._

ClingyInnit was one of his least favorite jokes. It always sent a shrill of panic down his spine at the thought of someone having _finally_ figured him out.

> _When Phoenix hybrids hid their wings for any length of time, the resulting period of the wings being unhidden was like charcoal. The smell of fire lingering everywhere they went, as a sort of warning to potential predators_ ~~_or prey_ ~~ _of what they were messing with._

The book had been disappointingly short about Phoenixes, but it was more information than Tommy had ever been able to get from anyone else. ~~_Though he only had himself to blame for that_ ~~

Jolted out of this thoughts, Tommy jumped back in surprise, and he could feel his wing muscles crying out trying to flex his wings in defense, as a lava began to drip through the block he had been mining. There was a lava pocket here, or maybe a lava lake. Either way, he couldn’t afford to lose a life here without his feathers. He wasn’t sure how much lava there was or how deep it went.

Taking a deep breath, Tommy sat down and began mining the ground. He’d dig down one block and then dig the next block in his path. If there was lava, he’d just have to place a piece of ~~_cobble_ ~~stone there to stop it and then go down another level to try again.Fortunately, he only had to dig down three blocks before the journey forward was safe. 

He was about to begin mining forward once again when Ghostbur’s head phased through the block in front of him. “Tommy!”

Tommy yelped, and in his panic, Tommy forgot about the excruciating pain in his back. Though when his back made contact with the wall behind him, he couldn’t help but crumple to the ground, blinking spots from his vision. 

“-Ommy? Are you alright? What’s wrong? Why are you hurt?” Ghostbur’s voice came into focus as the ringing in his ears that Tommy hadn’t noticed began to fade.

“Gh-Ghostbur?” Tommy managed, fists clenched against the stone below him in pain, trying to ground himself. “Wh-What- What are you doing down here?”

Instead of answering his question, Ghostbur frowned and hovered around him anxiously. “Why are you hurt?”

A full body shiver worked its way through Tommy and he hissed in pain as the movement made his wing muscles twitch. 

“Tommy, I’m going to go get Technoblade-”

“NO!” Sitting up fast enough to see streaks of light in his vision, Tommy gasped. He couldn’t trust Technoblade. 

The piglin hybrid had _killed_ Tubbo at a tyrant’s orders. Because he had been _pressured_. 

Part of him whispered that Dream couldn’t manipulate **_The_ ** Technoblade, but he had grown out of such childish fantasies. ~~_He couldn’t afford to be a kid anymore_~~. 

“Tommy.” Ghostbur’s normally sad tone sounded heartbroken. “Tommy, please. You’re hurt.”

Blearily, Tommy placed a hand against the wall and shakily stood. “Nononono, can’t trus’,” He could hear the slurring of his words, but Tommy could only focus on remaining standing. 

“Tommy, you need _help_.”

The rock beneath his fingers was an odd texture, though he was almost too numb to feel it. Looking down at his fingers, Tommy realized that they were an angry shade of red. 

“Did you burn your hand, Tommy?”

How peculiar. 

~~_Maybe all the heat had left with his wings._ ~~

Tommy was fairly certain that his hand wasn’t supposed to be an angry red color. It didn’t even feel _warm_ like the color red was supposed to. 

“I’m going to get Technoblade.”

Though he supposed that other colors could be warm too. Like blue fire. He’d seen a lot of blue fire in the soul sand valley back in the nether. Did that mean Conor was also too hot to touch? Tommy should ask him next time.

~~_Green was hot with pain_ ~~

Yellow was also warm. Campfires had a lot of yellow in them. The sun was also yellow too. Did that mean that bees were warm? Tubbo liked bees. Maybe he liked bees because they were warm.

“I brought, Technoblade! Don’t worry!”

Orange was the color between red and yellow, so it was probably orange too. There weren’t a whole lot of orange things in the world. Probably because red and yellow didn’t like mixing too much. 

“Ghostbur, he’s shivering. How long has he been down here?”

Tommy could understand that. He didn’t like mixing all that much. It always made his arms tired and he would have to wait forever to be able to eat cake. 

“I don’t know. I only just saw Tommy’s name tag while you were looking for diamonds.”

Philza Minecraft always made cakes with red berries, which Tommy thought was odd. They weren’t even _spicy_ berries. If you were a berry and you were red, you weren’t supposed to be _sweet_.

“Tommy. Are you with us?”

Honey was supposed to be sweet though. And it was yellow. Maybe not everything yellow was supposed to be warm? 

“Ghostbur, I need you to grab his stuff. I’m going to have to carry him back to my house.”

But that was confusing. Why would things be two different extremes? Warm and sweet were complete opposites!

“What’s he on about?”

Wait. That couldn’t be right. Tubbo was warm _and_ sweet! 

“I think he’s in shock, Technoblade.”

Tubbo was like bees! Did that mean that the yellow was warm and the black was sweet?

“Yes, but _why_. Something is seriously wrong here.”

That made perfect sense. But why did Tubbo wear a black suit and stop being his friend? That wasn’t sweet. That was mean.

“He’s shutting down like he’s lost an _arm_ or something.”

But why did Tubbo start being so mean? Did Tommy do something wrong again? He didn’t mean to.

“But he hasn’t? See? One, two arms!”

Tommy didn’t mean to get Tubbo angry. It wasn’t on purpose.

“We need to get him back quickly. He’s going to dehydrate himself further with all these tears.”

He didn’t _want_ to make Tubbo angry. Tubbo was supposed to be happy! But Tommy had made him angry, hadn’t he?

“I don’t have any blue on me! How is Tommy supposed to stop feeling sad, Technoblade?!”

That’s all he did. He made people angry. People-Angry-Maker-Innit they called him.

“He’s just going to have to wait until we can get back to my place.”

People-Angry-Maker-Innit was a stupid name.

“Didn’t you being Carl this time, Technoblade?”

Why did his dad name him that? It was a stupid name. 

“Don’t worry, Ghostbur. He’s right over here.”

Maybe because he made his dad angry too. Just like he had made Tubbo angry. Was all that People-Angry-Maker-Innit was good at? Living up to his name? He was already tall! How much more “living up” did he have to do? Wilbur had “living up” taller than he had. Maybe that’s why his dad was angry.

“Hold on, Toms, we’re almost there.”

Maybe his dad was angry because he didn’t tell him. People-Angry-Maker-Innit hadn’t _meant_ to tell Dream! It was an accident! 

“What are you on about?”

People-Angry-Maker-Innit didn’t mean to tell Dream at all! But maybe his dad was angry because People-Angry-Maker-Innit hadn’t told _him_. It was a secret! 

“Ghostbur, he’s delirious. I hate to give him a healing potion with the state he’s in right now, but I think we’ll have to risk it.”

Dad wasn’t _supposed_ to know. People-Angry-Maker-Innit wasn’t supposed to distract his dad from his important work, he knew that. Dad needed to rule an empire, not be bothered by the nuisance.

“But he looks so _weak_. How do you know that giving him a potion won’t kill him?”

He didn’t mean to be so weak. He honestly didn’t. He tried to be stronger, he did! He had done everything he could!

“I don’t. But he’s too far gone into shock for us to find what’s wrong, and by the time we figure it out it might be too late.”

Tommy felt drowsiness wash over him like lava. It was nice and warm, not unlike a blanket. Almost like wings. 

“I think that’s all his body can handle for now, Ghostbur. We’ll have to wait until he wakes up to give him more.”

The lucidity of Tommy’s thoughts is what allowed him to wake up. Or, rather, the lucidity of _one_ thought in particular. 

_Where am I?_

His second, and more jarring thought was:

_Where’s Dream?_

Sitting up bolt right, Tommy felt his back muscles twinge in pain.

He’s forgotten.

His wings.

Stifling his sob, Tommy curled in on himself. 

His wings were _gone_.

Forcing himself to breathe, Tommy stuttered for several moments, clutching his hair tightly in an attempt to ground himself.

Logstedshire was blown up. Dream had taken his wings. Tommy had tunneled. 

He was in a room, on a bed, so someone must have found him. But whether or not they had contacted Dream….

Taking a deep breath, Tommy shakily got to his feet, ignoring the sheering pain that danced across his shoulder blades. He was in a small room, and at the other end there was a ladder leading down. Pausing by the window he saw nothing but snow. 

He was in a tundra biome. There was one close by Logstedshire, so he was probably not too far from the last place Dream had seen him.

As he drew close to the ladder, he heard voices.

“Ghostbur, we _need_ Philza. You and I both know that he’s the better healer.” That was Technoblade’s voice Tommy realized with a sick turn in his gut.

The same Technoblade that had given into a tyrant because of mild peer pressure.

“But Fundy-” Ghostbur began.

Technoblade finished. “Isn’t our priority right now. Tommy is upstairs, potentially _dying_ right now. We have more pressing concerns than Fundy’s father figure issues, Ghostbur.” 

Tommy’s brain caught up. They were trying to get _Philza_ . He would immediately figure out what would happen. He would know that Tommy had wings ~~_once_ ~~. Nonono.

“Fundy also needs Phil right now!” Ghostbur rarely sounded anything other than sad. Now he sounded frustrated.

“Ghostbur, if you aren’t going to get Phil, then I’m going to have to. He’s under house arrest right now.”

Tommy zoned out, no longer focusing on their argument. 

He needed to _leave_.

He couldn’t stay here. 

~~_Especially if Philza was coming._ ~~

But where was he supposed to go? 

He was kicked out of _everywhere_ else! 

There was no one left that he could trust.

The sound of a door slamming shut startled him. The house was silent.

Creeping over to the window, Tommy peered out carefully. Technoblade was saddling up his horse, and Ghostbur seemed to be shouting at him. The piglin hybrid was off without even a second glance back and Ghostbur seemed to fizzle angrily in the snow before turning and storming off into the forest.

They both already left him alone?

~~_Of course they did_ ~~

This was perfect! That meant that he wouldn’t have to wait to sneak out.

Scrambling down the ladder as quickly as he could Tommy hobbled over to the enderchest. He needed what little protection he could get from the elements. To his dismay he found little in ways of armor or weaponry in his ender chest, at least aside from the creeper head Sam had given him. 

Sam.

He had offered Tommy a place at the beginning of his exile. 

Before Tommy could think better, he had his communicator in hand.

**_You whisper: Sam?_ **

**_You whisper: Is your offer still open_ **

The messages were sent before he could hesitate. That was stupid. He shouldn’t have messaged Sam. Nobody would want-

His communicator pinged softly.

**_Sam whispers back: Of course, what are your cords?_ **

**Author's Note:**

> So originally this was just a Phoenix TommyInnit story idea - but then I was struck with the realization that I had the power to do whatever I wanted lol - so I added in Awesamdad because I love it and am soft for that relationship :)
> 
> Yeppers! 3003 words of prelude :D I'm really excited because this is a combining of two really big ideas that already have a lot of ground work laid in my notes - so it's just going to take crossing the gap.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you guys have a lovely time! <3


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